The Last Griffin

by Wendy L. Koenig

  He smiled then, and she felt his thumb stroke her back where his hand rested. Shivers of a different kind rode up her arm to her spine and down to the backs of her knees. He said, “It’s the best option for me to fight them. Trust me.”

  So far, her magic Chinese artist had rescued her from the first onslaught of bear-costumed men, helped her escape the hospital and defended her from the very same bear-men again at his home at the cost of all his antiques. She might still be terrified, but trust him she would, though she failed to see how moving out of the populace and into the wilderness would help them defend themselves. If it were up to her, she’d ring every doorbell until somebody answered, and then she’d hide inside. Then again, thinking of how the attackers had broken into Brian’s place, maybe not. Given that, would any place be safe?

  Olivia quit balking and they hurried into the park. The heady pine scent filled her nostrils and rolled deep into her chest with every inhale. This forest was like the frozen Colorado wilderness that surrounded Boulder. But, being centrally located, it had plenty of running water during the warm weather to support all manner of green life imported by birds or unsuspecting humans.

  In the winter, skeletons of plants populated the park. Thick tangles of icy saplings tripped them. Ice coated vines twined high into tall, straight aspens, some stretching to nearby trees, creating a wall they had to work their way around. Stripped branches of icicle dripping pines hung low and at crooked angles, grabbing at them and scoring their flesh. They had to battle their way through. Once they breached this initial wall, it would be easier going because the tall trees, when in leaf, blocked the sun from the forest floor. Saplings starved out. The undergrowth was sparse.

  As their large followers forged through the frozen brush behind them, they were easier to hear. Brian and Olivia knew exactly where they were. But it worked both ways, and the pursuers knew where their prey was also. It ratcheted up Olivia’s fear level by at least 700%.

  Brian didn’t show any fear though. He acted as if he avoided miscreants every day by traipsing through the forest. As if it was something any normal person would expect to do. But then, maybe he did do this kind of thing every day. After all, he’d said he was a bodyguard. Maybe he was one of those survivalist nuts. She didn’t think so, but how would she know from just one evening with him?

  He shifted his guidance system from her back to her hand as he pulled her through tangles of vines, branches, and saplings. At times, he bodily picked her up and over some obstacle she couldn’t quite make out. Icy logs became the bane of her existence. More than once, she found herself face down after bumping her foot on one while crossing. Her limited amount of energy drained quickly and the punch of adrenaline wasn’t enough to replace it. She tried to keep up, but she moved slower and slower. It got to the point Brian carried her most of the time.

  Every second, the great hulking shadows followed them.

  Reaching a deep copse of aspen, Brian stopped dead. Here the aged trees spaced themselves far enough apart to allow the moonlight through. Saplings filled the forest floor. He looked back and forth, raising his chin. He reminded her of Miss Atwood’s hound when he was trying to catch a scent. Then he turned to Olivia, both hands on her shoulders, face grim. “We’re surrounded.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Do you trust me?”

  What? Was he kidding? Did he think she normally traipsed around injured in the woods on a winter night? Shouldn’t he know the answer to that question by now? She’d intended a small amount of sarcasm to slip through, but exhaustion made her voice sharp. “I’m here with you, aren’t I? Of course I do.”

  He frowned, let go of her, and stepped back. His body began to transform. The moonlight reflected off snow in the semi-open area and lit him in a muted glow. Olivia backed away even farther to give him room and to get a better view. But not too far, their followers were close. Thick gray hair sprouted from his skin and through his clothes, covering him. It moved in waves as his body changed and shifted. Dense ropes of muscle bulked on his arms and chest, straining his shirt until it ripped. His jeans split at the seams, exposing more bulk.

  His face grew long in front of him, with a pointy nose and ears. Sharp teeth snicked into place, lining his mouth. Musk rolled off him. His hands grew long with scythe-shaped claws. The biggest change was his size. His rangy six-foot-six inches grew in stature and mass until he reached at least eight feet tall with the hulk of a football player. One massive paw swiped at the rags of his clothes and flung them to the ground. He stood in front of her on hind legs, a wild and untamed creature. One of legends and nightmares.

  The man was a werewolf.

  And impressive as hell.

  The transformation took only seconds, and yet the world Olivia knew radically shifted in that time. The monsters that had always terrified her in the dark were real. Brian was one of them. Proof that they existed. It puzzled her that Brian didn’t frighten her though. If anything, she felt even safer. He looked more like a wolf, even on two legs, than the fabled werewolf.

  Through it all, he kept his gaze on her as if to get confirmation of something. She took another step back, just to get a good view into his eyes. What did he want? Approval? No. Acceptance. She gave one quick nod, and it seemed to satisfy him. Not only did she accept him, she absolutely approved. His musk surrounded her, sparking something primal within. She forgot about her pursuers, the dead man in Brian’s house and the dark forest surrounding them. Her hands itched to run through his dusky fur and trace the firm muscles on his chest. She hoped he wasn’t some kind of hallucination and she was really lying on his couch, dreaming.

  She stopped dead at the sudden realization of what she felt and had been thinking. It wasn’t the attraction that bothered her. She happily admitted she had interest in the man. What bugged her was the smoldering burn she now felt deep in her belly. Dear God! She had the hots for a werewolf!

  Chapter 17

  Brian had kept his transformation as slow as he could, given the circumstances. There wasn’t much time though: Hall’s three men had joined with some reinforcements and were circling for the attack. He didn’t want to alarm Olivia any more than necessary, halting at the halfway point. She needed to see he was still a man, but wolf also. He watched her, waiting for signs of horror, fear, and revulsion. His heart would break. He would suffer. Someday he’d move on.

  He braced himself.

  Then, something magical happened. Instead of panic, her gaze turned into one of acceptance and approval. He held his breath. Could this be real? True, it was a long way from the lightning bolt of attraction they’d shared in the house, and it might move into the just “friends” realm, but he’d take it. Anything was better than seeing terror on her face.

  A sweet blush of pheromones hit him. Olivia was attracted to the wolf as well as the man. She could be a freak, turned on by animal sex. Though, he couldn’t really see her following the whole animal erotica scene. Most probably she was just a devotee of the romanticized Hollywood werewolves. Still, his heart dictated that he’d take what he could get. At least for now.

  Her face reddened and her eyes widened. More pheromones bloomed into the air between them. The scent of her filled his nostrils. She was his. Her desire urged the animal side of him to growl his longing to her. He almost did, too, but there was no time. He just hoped she still wanted him when this was all over. She could have a change of heart. Or come to her senses.

  Dark shadows menaced from beyond the grove. Thick rolls of bear musk curled over him. Regretting the circumstances that brought them together and now might separate them again, he broke the spell and pointed to the top of a tall, thin Aspen. It would be easy for her to climb, not so for the bears. They’d have to change to human. That would make them more vulnerable.

  Olivia shook her head. “I can’t reach.”

  The tree had lost its bottom boughs; she would need a boost. Brian scooped her up as if she were a squirming caterpillar. Though he longed to hold her close
, he launched her at the lowermost limb. He held his breath until she landed neatly on top, scrambling for a hold on the icy trunk. Her blanket, which had miraculously traveled with her in the vertical flight, got snagged and ripped away to flutter to the ground. She began a slow climb, stretching from one icy branch to another, no doubt losing skin on the way.

  Olivia didn’t look good. Exhaustion showed in the deep wells of her eyes and the haggard, but determined set of her jaw. She slipped and slid, losing her grasp more than a few times. It worried him. It would do no good to save her life here if she couldn’t heal. She needed rest.

  While she climbed, he continued his transformation, putting more energy into it. He was out of time. The familiar ache bit at his bones, added to a sharp agonizing lance of pain that happened only when he rushed the change. He gritted his teeth and dropped onto all fours. He was strongest in his between form—the werewolf. But speed would be what won this fight, and he was quickest as a true wolf. He could wear down his adversary until the real muscle, Tony, arrived.

  Some of Hall’s reinforcements had arrived, and his men were nearly in place now, crashing through the woods toward them. Brian smelled mostly bears, but their scent was strong and overpowered the odor of the others. He had no idea what they were, but they hung back and didn’t approach. He neither smelled nor saw Hall himself. Apparently, the fight at the house had injured him too much and was as much as the bear had wanted in person.

  Fully wolf now, he backed against the base of Olivia’s tree where he would make his stand. Either he would win this fight or he would die protecting the woman perched in the tree above.

  Chapter 18

  Below Olivia, growls and guttural noises echoed from tree to tree as the enemy pushed into view. They showed no hesitation, as if the giant wolf hadn’t been standing there. Three of them came close, leaving more hidden amid the murky shadows. These three were all dressed as bears. Her mind jumped unbidden to the night in her apartment: the deep bruising kicks, the panic and the assurance of her death. Red-brown fur. Had that been only last night? Were these the same men?

  Even in the dark, she saw the cinnamon fur that fluffed their size to larger than a normal man, though one towered over the others. To her, they all looked impossibly huge. At that moment, she finally understood. These men weren’t in costume; they were like Brian. They could change from human to bear and back again. Hence the reason for Tony’s questions about shoes. He had to be sure who, or what, had attacked her.

  She also understood why Brian had chosen this place to make his stand. These bear people were desperate to kill her. No house could stop these fiends. Nor would anyone, innocent bystander or no, be safe. He had to get them away from the populace of Boulder. Fear for him tightened Olivia’s throat, almost choking her.

  Brian was fully wolf now, on all fours, snarling at the attackers from the base of the tree. The bears lunged and tried to circle him to get at her. The wolf dodged and danced back and forth. He first snapped at one hairy beast and then at another. She tried to remember what she’d learned about wolves from Miss Atwood, but she’d been a poor student. The only thing she remembered was that their jaws were some of the most powerful in the world. The large ones could crush a man’s skull.

  Brian was large. He was very large.

  The wiry saplings sprang back as they were knocked into or trampled, tangling and slowing the bears’ swats. Though spaced wide enough to allow the saplings to grow, the bigger trees, like the one where Olivia perched, grew close enough to make movement difficult for the bigger bears. One of the bears, in trying to club Brian, crashed his furry fist into her tree and the vibration ricocheted through the trunk into her bones. Bark and ice flew. She clutched harder to her branch.

  The bears could take down her tree. They could also climb. As men, they could climb faster. No matter which way she looked at it, she was doomed if Brian failed. The magnificent wolf darted in, snapping and biting like a rabid creature, avoiding the clubbing fists and the crushing arms of the bears. Clumps of red fur flew. More creatures—mostly bears, but also a stag and two giant lizards—joined the fight from the shadows of the forest. As he defended her and the fight moved in an arc from her tree, the largest bear changed to man and, naked, began the climb to where she huddled.

  Olivia called to her wolf. “Brian!”

  In a blur of motion, the wolf launched onto the back of the man and killed him. Protector, indeed. She approved of Brian’s “other skills.”

  The body fell. One of the two remaining bears hooked his claws under her wolf’s rib cage and threw him against the next large tree amidst a shower of ice and snow. With a soft whine and a solid thump, Brian dropped to the ground and lay still. Her heart thudded loudly as she looked for any signs of life. From her perch, she saw none. The other creatures milled about on the ground, watching her. A small bear began to climb her tree, growling. With a start, she realized he was small enough that the aspen could support him as an animal. Her branch shook with every step he took.

  She scrambled higher, slipping on the ice-covered branches, and shouted, “Tell me! Tell me why you want to kill me! What have I done?”

  The beast didn’t answer. Each branch he climbed, she also retreated another. The tree swayed with the weight of the bear. Twice, her foot slid out from under her, leaving her flailing over open air. The stag below shook its antlers at her.

  A loud shot rang out. Bark exploded an inch above the bear’s head. Tony’s voice filled the forest. “If you make one more move to hurt that woman, I’ll drill a silver bullet right into your brain. Then I’ll change, and I know that you know exactly what I am. I guarantee none of you want to tangle with me.”

  The bear looked over his shoulder, as if considering his options, and then dropped to the ground. He lumbered off with his friends, but not far. She heard them waiting in the woods. In her panic to get to the ground and check on Brian, Olivia slipped more times than not, adding yet more skinned places and bruises to her collection. When she finally reached the ground, he was waking naked in human form. She snatched up her blanket and wrapped it around him, falling to her knees. Worry crowded fear and everything else from her mind. “Are you all right? What can I do?”

  He seemed surprised, but a smile came. “Yeah. I’m okay.” He slowly eased himself into a sitting position, leaning against the tree. As he moved, the earlier fight’s gash opened again. He swiped at the blood seeping from his brow with his hand and then held the heel of his palm against the wound.

  “Of course he’s okay. That wolf can take a beating. Isn’t that right?” Tony’s voice came from where he crouched over a decapitated body.

  She rounded on him. Fear made her voice sharp and high pitched. Tears scalded the rims of her eyes, and she blinked hard to keep them back. “Where were you? If you had been here, no one would have gotten hurt or killed. For that matter, how come you let them go? Why didn’t you question one of them?” To Olivia, her voice sounded frantic. She glanced at Brian, hoping he hadn’t noticed. He had an amused smile directed at his friend, waiting, she supposed, for the answer.

  Tony stood and turned to face her. He carried a backpack, walking closer, placing his feet precisely in front of each other with no effort. He didn’t smile, but his eyes glittered like blue fire. Everything about him spoke of danger. She assumed from what he’d said that he also had an animal form and wondered at it. She made a mental note to be more careful with him. His voice was smooth as the ice that filled the forest, but it had a steely quality underneath. He said, “A, I was on the way here. It takes something called ‘time’ to navigate the streets. And B, I have already questioned one of them. These men aren’t who we want.” He stopped speaking and held her gaze, as if daring her to say another word.

  She kept her mouth shut.

  He dropped the bag beside Brian and kicked his foot. “Get up, you lazy cuss. You may have convinced her you’re mortally injured, but not me. You still have work to do. They aren’t giving up, and she
’s still in danger. This is Hall’s show and he’s thrown mostly his own clan of bears at you, but I’m willing to bet more from other families of shifters are on the way. I’ll hold them off as long as I can, then join you at the truck. You know where it is.”

  With that, his body stretched. Soft white and black fur sprouted through his skin and clothes. Like Brian, sharp fangs lined his mouth. He dropped to all fours. Claws and a long tail grew from his body. His clothes fell to the ground in shreds. Brilliant blue eyes glittered against the fur on his face. A feral cat odor billowed from him. Before Olivia stood a huge white Bengal tiger. Where Brian had been all power and muscle, this creature was lithe and sleek. He was the most beautiful cat she’d ever seen. Also one of the most dangerous.

  She became conscious of her slack jaw and open mouth. She closed it with a snap. Now his name, Silvani…Silver, made sense to her. It also made sense why the bear had left when faced with a lone gunman: he knew of Tony’s alternate body and didn’t want to tangle with him unless he had reinforcements.

  She rocked back on her heels and stood as Brian slowly raised himself from the ground. The backpack contained a complete change of clothing, more than one set. It looked like these two had been down this road before. She pivoted to look the other direction while Brian dressed, though she was sure it amused him to have the tables turned. She thought she caught a glimpse of moving shadows among the trees, but it was so dark she couldn’t tell for sure. How many bears still wanted her dead?

  Questions flooded her head. First and foremost, who were these people? And, was she really awake? She felt like Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Tigers and wolves and bears, oh my!

  The blood from Brian’s brow gash had slowed to a bare trickle when he handed her the blanket. She happily wrapped it around her shivering body, soaking in the warmth he’d left in it. The wool still held the remnants of his wolf musk interlaced with his natural human scent, and she inhaled deeply. What that did to her insides could be written in a pornographic romance novel. Longing filled her, like a sharp sweet pain, but was it for the wolf or the man?